Marketing by Generation: Tips to Follow

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There are distinct differences between all the different generations, which means you need to market to them differently. There are some things that will work across all platforms like using a machine learning company to set you up and punch out insights based on your customer data regardless of age. However, if you are planning to market to a specific age group, knowing how that generation thinks and how they respond to different marketing tactics will benefit you greatly.

Generation Z

Sometimes called post-millennial, the founders, iGen, or even Plurals, this generation has yet to have a nickname stick with them. It is typically anyone born in the mid-1990s to the mid-2000s making this the newest generation of adults and the newest customers to focus marketing efforts. Gen Z grew up with technology at their fingertips, meaning they are able to easily use technology devices. This is the generation that expects to find your company online and easily navigate information. They want to know you are doing something good with the money they give you, so missions and goals to make the world a better place are extremely important to them. Focus efforts on online marketing and communication in order to best reach them.

Millennials

Most people who are considered of the “Millennial” generation were born between the early 1980s and the mid 1990s. This group was the defining generation that completely changed everything with the use of technology.

Smartphones and the Internet really began being popular and important in their teen and college years making them technology based, though not as much so as Generation Z. It was also the generation that went through the Great Recession during their early careers making them a generation of entrepreneurs trying to start their own businesses. This makes them loyal to small businesses and communities, so marketing locally is a good method to use with them.

Millennials also spend a lot of time on social media, so social media marketing is a great place to be. This was the first generation that backed off a bit from loyalty towards companies, but as they’ve aged, their loyalty towards businesses has become more solidified again. If you are able to get their loyalty, you won’t be sorry. Rewards programs are popular, and make sure your customer service is up to speed, so they always feel like you care about them.Generation X Generation X typically describes anyone born between the 1960s and the 1980s.

This is the generation with families and full time jobs to worry about. Any kind of coupon or discount is more likely to bring them in to your store. Many of them have social media accounts but aren’t active users, which means marketing by text or email is going to be more effective than trying to focus on social media advertising. They are also in the throes of parenthood, so marketing in a way that brings the whole family togethers is going to be successful.

Baby Boomers – And the rest

The baby boomers were born between the 1940s and 1960s, though they are typically thrown in with the silent generation too when it comes to marketing strategy. Direct interaction is the best method of marketing to this generation since many of them don’t spend a lot of time on the Internet or on social media platforms. A direct text, phone call, or even letter in the mail might be enough to get them in store. Loyalty is also very important to this group of people. If they know you have worked for them in the past, you’ll get a good turnout in the future. This generation grew up when the economy was good and had nicer things in life. They want the same in their retirement years, so cost isn’t necessarily an issue. It can be hard to get them away from a brand they already love, but if you do, you’ll have a customer for life.

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Source: tcbusinessnews.com/marketing-to-grandpa-and-everyone-else/

Nine Things That Will Make Your Chatbot Easier To Talk To

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Chatbots have been slower to catch on than experts predicted. A big part of the problem leading to the slower than desired adoption rate is that in the rush to get in on the chatbot craze, many businesses deployed chatbots that weren’t particularly good at doing the one thing they’re supposed to do: chat. Putting a little effort into conversational design can work wonders. If you want customers to keep using your chatbot, you have to ensure that they have a positive experience each time they do so. Here are nine things you can do to make your chatbot easier to talk to.

Define your bot’s purpose

Before you can get into the specifics of conversational design, you have to have a clear goal of what you want the finished product to be. What do you want your chatbot to be able to do for customers? Will it primarily be an information gathering bot trying to learn more about your audience? Will it provide customer service? Will it drive more web traffic to your website? Increase sales by simplifying the checkout process? Define the purpose of your bot and you’ll be ready to get into the specifics.

Make it proactive

A big reason people aren’t using your chatbot might be because they don’t know it exists or, if they know it exists, how it can help them. A proactive chatbot can introduce itself and provide suggestions about what kinds of questions people can ask it.

Think about conversation flow

Depending on what you want your bot to be able to do, it will need to be able to ask and answer certain types of questions. There’s a natural give and take (or flow) to verbal communication and a bot that doesn’t sound natural can be off-putting.

Design your chatbot to lead

Chatbots are still a somewhat novel idea and many people aren’t totally sure how to use them. Your chatbot can be more effective if you design it to lead the conversation. Still give the user the option to ask questions of course but don’t leave it to the user to lead the entire conversation from beginning to end. Your chatbot can lead by taking the initiative to suggest things that the user can ask and by asking more questions.

Confirm valid answers before moving on

A simple feature that can improve a person’s experience with your chatbot is to have your bot confirm valid responses before moving on. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a chatbot you’re conversing with go off on a tangent and you can’t bring it back all because it misunderstood one thing you said. Instead have your chatbot confirm: “you want to know about [subject], right?”.

Suggested response buttons

Complete open endedness can be difficult for a chatbot. In other words, if the customer can say or ask whatever they want using any wording, there’s a better chance that your chatbot will misunderstand and be unable to assist. Suggested response buttons in which users are given a limited number of ways to respond may lessen user engagement a little, but it may be worth it if your chatbot is able to provide better assistance as a result.

Keep it simple

The more features you try to pack into your chatbot, the less likely it will be able to perform them successfully. Especially with your first attempt at building a chatbot, keep it very simple. You can always slowly add in new features as it masters the initial ones.

Give it a personality

Nobody likes communicating with a cold and impersonal robot. Even though they know they’re talking to a computer, users will appreciate it when bots are conversational and pleasant to talk to. Program your bot to use social niceties but be careful not to go too far and make it overbearing either.

Have a human backup

No matter how much work you put into programming your bot, it will make mistakes and that’s why you always need a human backup. Integrate your chatbot into your human customer support team so that a human is always standing by to take over when your bot gets stuck. People know that bots aren’t perfect and will be understanding when it fails but only if they still receive the help that led them to your chatbot in the first place.

Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com

Source: entrepreneur.com/article/305457#

The Current State of Chatbots and Why Now is the Time to Invest in Them

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Much of the artificial intelligence research being done today is purely academic. But in at least one area, we’re seeing an intersection between artificial intelligence research and real life. Consumer-facing chatbots are computer programs developed by companies to converse with their customers for any number of reasons. There are shopping assistant chatbots, financial planning chatbots, personal coach chatbots, customer service chatbots, and many other kinds of consumer-facing chatbots and 2017 seems to be their big year.

Chatbots have a lot to offer businesses who invest in them. They can provide customers with 24/7 support without the high cost associated with maintaining a 24/7 support team. For businesses on the fence about chatbots, here are a few good things to know.

Two kinds of chatbots

There are essentially two different kinds of chatbots. One operates on a rules engine while the other uses machine learning and natural language processing. Rules engine chatbots are not so very different from the automated phone answering systems that have been around for years. They are programmed to recognize a number of preset commands and questions and to respond from a bank of prewritten responses. Rules engine chatbots are easier and less expensive to program but they’re also more limited in what they can offer for brands and customers. They work best in highly regulated industries where customers will mostly be using the chatbot for a limited number of functions.

More advanced chatbots use subsets of artificial intelligence such as natural language processing and machine learning. Through natural language processing, chatbots can understand more open-ended queries even if they haven’t been specifically programmed to recognize those specific queries. Through machine learning, chatbots can improve the more interactions they have with customers as they learn to recognize patterns and incorporate information gained from past failures. These are more expensive and difficult to create but they also have a lot more to offer.

Which kind of chatbot you develop for your brand will depend on your particular circumstances and goals. Many choose to start with simpler rules engine chatbots before investing in more advanced AI chatbots.

Do they really work?

Many business owners wonder if chatbots live up to all they hype–and there has been a lot of hype surrounding chatbots. The answer is both yes and no. The artificial intelligence necessary to create a program that can really think and converse like a human simply doesn’t exist yet and there are drawbacks to using chatbots. For one, they will make more mistakes than humans. For whatever reason, the simplest questions can sometimes throw off a chatbot and can result in an inappropriate response. Furthermore, some people are just hesitant about the whole idea of conversing with chatbots in large part thanks to negative portrayals of AI in pop culture.

On the other hand, discounting chatbots because humans can differentiate between them and real humans is a lot like throwing out the baby with the bath water. Chatbots are expected to save businesses more than $8 billion this year alone and many customers will appreciate the option to avoid waiting on hold on the phone by speaking to a chatbot instead.

Why now is the time to invest

Chatbot technology is far enough along to have become affordable and practical for the average small business and the growing popularity of open-source chatbot projects and chatbot building software has made it easier than ever for businesses to design one without spending a fortune. On the other hand, it’s still new enough to be novel and innovative and give brands a head start over ones that are still stuck on the fence.

Mobile Technology News brought to you by biztexter.com

Source: businessnewsdaily.com/10295-chatbot-ai-customer-service.html